1994 NFL Draft

The 1994 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 24–25, 1994, at the Marriot Marquis in New York City, New York. The league also held a supplemental draft after the regular draft and before the regular season. This was the first draft in which the rounds were reduced to seven in total.

The highlight of ESPN's coverage of this draft was a verbal altercation between ESPN draft expert Mel Kiper, Jr. and Indianapolis Colts' GM Bill Tobin. While disputing the Colts pick of linebacker Trev Alberts of Nebraska (when Kiper felt a quarterback such as Trent Dilfer made more sense), Tobin famously said to the ESPN crew "Who in the hell is Mel Kiper, anyway? I mean, here's a guy who criticizes everybody, whoever they take. In my knowledge of him, he's never even put on a jockstrap, he's never been a player, he's never been a coach, he's never been a scout, he's never been an administrator, and all of a sudden, he's an expert. Mel Kiper has no more credentials to do what he's doing than my neighbor, and my neighbor's a postman and he doesn't even have season tickets to the NFL." Tobin would be fired as Colts GM in 1997 while Kiper is still employed by ESPN. Alberts is considered a draft bust with just four sacks in three seasons; Dilfer, although never a star, had a productive career, including game-managing the Baltimore Ravens to a win in Super Bowl XXXV several years after being drafted. This was also the final draft for both Los Angeles football teams for over two decades; by the 1995 draft, the Raiders had returned to Oakland and the Rams began a 21-year tenancy in St. Louis.